Animal bones found in Melitta coffee

Man finds rodent bones in "Bella Crema" coffee

08/01/2014

Bone in the coffee? A 33-year-old man from Hilden (North Rhine-Westphalia) has apparently found in a pack of coffee beans of the Melitta brand "Bella Crema" remains of animal bones. As the „New Westfälische“ Currently reported in its online edition, it would probably be the bones of a mouse or rat according to investigations by the Consumer Protection Agency of the district of Mettmann. According to the company „Melitta“ it must be assumed that the contamination took place in the country of origin of the green coffee and was an isolated case - but for safety's sake the entire batch had been identified and traced.

Again and again food scandals
Whether broken glass in pasta sauces or salmonella in onion sausage - again and again there are recalls due to impurities or foreign bodies in food. Now, a 33-year-old man from Hilden (Mettmann County) has apparently made another unappetizing find: When bottling coffee beans of the brand "Bella Crema" of Minden company Melitta he discovered according to his own bone remnants, which apparently came from an animal.

Coffee packaging and bone remains examined by the Consumer Protection Agency
As reported by nw.news.de, following the find at the end of last week, the man had immediately contacted the company and had already been visited the next day by employees of the company and the consumer protection office of the district of Mettmann to investigate the case. According to the head of the division PR, Tanja Wucherpfennig, „hand over the coffee pack and the debris identified as bone [.] to the authority for further investigation. Final results should be available in about two to three weeks.“

Remains are most likely from a rodent
However, according to initial investigations, the Consumer Protection Agency believes that the bones are "very likely" from a rodent, mouse or rat - but the remains would not present a health hazard, the paper said. But how the bones got into the coffee is still unclear. According to Tanja Wucherpfennig, the "Bella Crema" coffee was produced in September of last year, "for safety's sake, therefore, the entire batch was identified and traced," said the head of the PR, according to the Neue Westfälische further, was also "a restoring pattern [.] in the presence of a sworn expert and was free of foreign components.“ Therefore, the company would have assumed that the contamination had taken place in the country of origin of the green coffee and was thus an isolated case.

Generally high quality and hygiene standards at Melitta?
As Tanja Wucherpfennig further points out, the Milton-based Melitta group of companies Bentz KG would generally apply the highest quality and hygiene standards, both when delivering the green coffee and when roasting and packaging the products. It would be the „closed production process“ regularly internally as well as by independent experts examined - the last investigation had taken place according to data of the new Westphalians only eight weeks ago.

Information for consumers „lebensmittelwarnung.de“
Again and again new food scandals, impurities and burdens that frighten consumers. However, these can not be completely avoided, because the monitoring should always be complete, „but one hundred percent foreign matter can not be ruled out“, explains Bernhard Burdick of the consumer center NRW. On the website „lebensmittelwarnung.de“ The Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety, however, consumers can still inform about affected products and thus avoid consumption. Here are according to the Federal Office „public warnings and information in the sense of § 40 of the Food and Feed Code“ published in which it is „usually references from the competent authorities to public information or a take-back or recall action by the food business operator“ is. (No)

Picture: Denise